Media Violence, Aggression, and Public Policy

Two questions have dominated public debate about media violence since the 1930s: (1) Does exposure to violent media have harmful effects on youth? (2) How should society handle this problem? Even before the explosive growth of television in the 1950s, research on potentially harmful effects of movie violence was indeed discovering such effects (e.g., Blumer & Hauser, 1933; see Wartella & Reeves, 1985, for an historical overview). The public debate still rages, despite numerous governmental and nongovernmental health organization reviews and reports, all of which have concluded that the research shows signifi cant harmful effects (e.g., the 1954 Kefauver hearings